Have you finally come to the conclusion that having a strong mobile website would be best for your business? If so, you are on the right track to success.

With a growing number of people using mobile devices, it is more important than ever to have a robust mobile site that can handle traffic coming from mobile OS .

Here is the problem: many people don’t know what goes into increasing their mobile site conversion. They have everything figured out as far as desktop visitors are concerned, but the mobile world is an entirely different ball game.

“Mobile internet usage in the US has grown by 73% over the last 12 months to reach 24.4% in August. UK mobile internet usage is up by 69% to 23.2%.”

As you can see, mobile internet usage is taking off in the United States, as well as many other parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom.

You can look at this two ways:

Disappointment, as you don’t know how to use this to your advantage.

Opportunity, as you are now in position to reach a larger audience.

Let’s get back to mobile site conversion. Even if your conversion rate has suffered up to this point, it doesn’t mean you have to travel down this path in the future. There are strategies you can implement, without much time or money, which have the potential to boost your conversion rate.

Here are five ideas to consider

1. The mantra “less is more” should be your guiding light

Think about the way you browse the internet from your smartphone or tablet. Do you have a lot of time? Are you interested in sifting through tons of content and images, just to find what you are looking for? Probably not.

When it comes to mobile design, less is always more. Most mobile visitors have a specific reason for navigating to your website. Maybe they are looking for a business in their area. Maybe they want to compare your price to a local store.

If you want to keep mobile visitors on your site, eliminate as many distractions as possible. Get to the point by providing simplified, visually appealing contact with defined navigation.

When you think back to the early days of the internet, you may cringe at the thought of all those annoying pop-ups that were always getting in the way.

Guess what? These are making a comeback. The only difference is that these pop-ups actually have a purpose this time around. After all, it is 2015 not 1995.

WisePops, for example, can be used to display pop ups on a mobile site. You can do a variety of things with such a solution, all of which are meant to increase mobile conversions. Here are some ideas to consider:

Use a pop-up to provide mobile users with a special offer, such as a discount code.

Give visitors the opportunity to join your mailing list. Once you collect a person’s email address, you can market your products and/or services to them again in the future.

Promote your most important content, such as videos, blog posts, and anything else you want people to see.

From a website owner’s perspective, there are many benefits of using a pop-up program, including the fact that this will improve conversions while keeping people around for a longer period of time.

On the flipside, visitors don’t mind these pop-ups, as long as they provide them with information of value, such as a link to popular content or a coupon for saving money.

3. Keep images to a minimum

This is not to say your mobile site should be “text only.” However, if you want to increase the conversion rate of your mobile website, you must eliminate images that have no real purpose.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

Images can get in the way of what you are really trying to say or accomplish.

Images can slow down your website, which is one of the top reasons why visitors leave a mobile site before finding what they were looking for.

The number of images you use will depend on many factors, including the type of website you are running. For example, an ecommerce website should use more images than a basic blog.

Additional tip: make sure images adapt to the appropriate screen size. If this doesn’t happen, your visitors will only see a jumbled webpage mixed with large images and content. At that point, their first thought is simple: time to find another resource.

4. Make life easier on your visitors

Here is the one question you need to answer: what do you want people to do upon visiting your website?

Once you know the answer to this question, you can design your site to make life easier on these visitors.

If your goal is for mobile visitors to make a purchase from your store, they shouldn’t have to search far and wide for the product they are looking for. Navigation should be simple. Images should be resized and easy to view. The shopping cart should be easy to understand. The checkout process should only take a couple of minutes, at the most.

Have you found that email or phone calls convert better than organic mobile traffic? In this case, don’t hesitate to push people in the appropriate direction with a killer call to action. You could add a “call button” in a prominent location, making it easy for users to click to dial.

Or maybe you can use a pop-up program to ensure that every visitor has the opportunity to join your mailing list. What about a sign-up box for a discount? Give people a reason to take action.

5. Encourage social sharing

According to the Pew Research Center, “as of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites.”

Of these people, a large percentage use social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, on their mobile device.

If you want to squeeze every last ounce of success out of your mobile site, you should do whatever you can to encourage social sharing.

This is important for two reasons:

When somebody shares a piece of content it shows that they are interested in what you have to say.

When your content is shared on social media it will help bring other visitors to your site, all of which you can attempt to convert into customers.

There are a lot of things changing in the wonderful world of social media, but the one constant is the fact that people will continue to use these sites to share content with one another.

“60% or so of social media time is spent not on desktop computers but on smartphones and tablets.”

Now that you know this, it is time to encourage social sharing.

Final Thoughts

If you don’t have a mobile website, you shouldn’t worry about boosting your conversion rate just. Instead, you should first take care of the basics.

Once your mobile site is in place, it is time to focus on the five strategies above. If you implement one or more of these ideas, it won’t be long before your conversion rate is taking off. At that point, you can continue to experiment with all these strategies, never settling until you have exercised all possible options.

“Online shopping and ecommerce is a huge multi billion dollar industry and is expected to grow by 20% this year to $1.5 trillion globally.”

Check out those numbers. In addition to robust growth, online shopping and eCommerce will reach $1.5 trillion globally. That is trillion with a “t” not billion with a “b.”

And according to Marketing Land, retail revenue generated via mobile was up 35 percent in the first quarter of 2014 over the first quarter of 2013, with mobile accounting for 18.5 percent of total eCommerce orders in Q1 2014 compared to 13.7 percent in Q1 2013.

As more and more people spend more time on their mobile device, including both smartphones and tablets, these numbers will only continue to grow (more on how to take advantage below).

Tips to Improve your Conversion Rate

Below are four actionable tips you can implement today (or in the very near future) to convert a greater number of visitors into shoppers:

1. Put your best foot forward

Display your best deals and special offers in a prominent location. For example, shipping costs are a pain point for many online shoppers. They don’t mind shopping online to save money, but the last thing they want is to lose these savings at checkout.

Fanatics, formerly known as Football Fanatics, is a great example of this. On the homepage, above the fold, you will find the following:

Easy 365-day returns

Free Shipping over $50 (along with a coupon code)

Save up to 40% off clearance

Rather than make visitors search around for this information, Fanatics uses it as a hook. These hooks keep people on the site longer, while also giving them a reason to make a purchase. And when you give somebody the reason to make a purchase, it is only natural for them to spend more.

If your online store offers free shipping, make it known to visitors. Put it on your homepage. Add it to the top of every product page. Make it clear as soon as the person visits their shopping cart.

Don’t shy away from sharing your best deals in the best locations.

2. The power of pop-ups

No, we aren’t talking about those crazy pop-up ads that were so popular (and annoying) 10 to 15 years ago. It is the same concept, however, today’s technology allows you to do it much better.

With pop-ups, you can:

Control what visitors see, as well as when they see it. Have a special deal you want to announce? Adding it to a pop-up will guarantee that every visitor takes a second look. You can promote everything from coupons to top sellers and much more.

Welcome visitors based on traffic source, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google AdWords.

Reward repeat visitors. It can be frustrating for the same person to visit your store, time and time again, but never make a purchase. Pop-ups allows you to display custom messages to repeat visitors.

But doesn’t it take a lot of time to get up and running? Not in today’s world. Solutions like WisePops allow you to create a pop-up in a minute or less. Best yet, you don’t need any HTML knowledge.

3. Don’t ignore mobile visitors

When you look at your site’s analytics what do you see? How many people are visiting on a mobile device? If you don’t know the answer to this question, head over to your analytics account as soon as you are done here. You need to know what type of device your visitors are using.

A mobile friendly eCommerce store is more important than ever before. In September 2014, StatCounter noted that the use of mobile devices to access the internet has increased by 67% worldwide over the last 12 months.

Simply put, if your website is not friendly to mobile visitors you are leaving a lot of money on the table. These people won’t take the time to navigate a site that is nothing more than a jumbled mess.

Revamping your eCommerce store to be mobile friendly may be a huge undertaking, but when everything is said and done you will begin to reap the rewards. Visitors who used to come and go within a matter of seconds will now remain on your site, improving the chance of converting into a customer.

Are you one of those people who still has a hard time believing that mobile shoppers can have a profound effect on conversion rate?

What would a change like this mean to your business? How much more money would you make by creating a mobile friendly website?

Amazon, led my eCommerce master Jeff Bezos, is a great example of how a mobile online store should appear if conversion rate is of utmost importance. The “traditional” Amazon website has always been one of the best converting in the land, and its mobile version doesn’t miss a beat.

Here are the reasons why Amazon’s mobile website is the cream of the crop:

Search box at the top of the page, giving visitors the ability to immediately type in what they are looking for.

A wealth of information available without the need to click. As you scroll down the page, you will find everything from recently viewed items to best sellers to department links.

Free of clutter. Your smartphone or tablet screen is not likely to be as large as your desktop or notebook computer. This is why a clutter-free environment is so important.

Let’s put it this way: if Amazon did not have a mobile website, but instead relied solely on its desktop site, its sales would not be as strong. Everything about Amazon is built to improve conversion rate. If you are going to study or emulate one online store, let it be this one.

4. Better images and descriptions

When a shopper visits a brick and mortar location, they can see the product with their own two eyes. In most cases, they can touch it as well. The same cannot be said for an eCommerce store. This means that images and descriptions are even more important.

The Red Dress Boutique is a great example of this. Rather than stick with the “same old, same old” photos, they took things to the next level by hiring models to show off their clothes.

Their descriptions are just as strong, including three sections:

Details

Model specs

Size chart

Two of the three sections, model specs and size chart, only apply to clothing stores, however, there are others that can be substituted.

Yes, it will cost more money to take better images. Yes, it will take a bit more time and brainpower to create descriptions that sell. But again, once you make this change you will realize it was for the better.

Final Word

Is your eCommerce store stuck in a rut? Are you attracting loads of traffic, yet not making nearly as many sales as you should? If you find yourself on this path, the four tips above are right up your alley.

Start by implementing one of the tips above, maybe the one that is easiest for you. From there, experiment with the others. With each change, take a closer look at your conversion rate. This will give you a clear idea of how each adjustment is impacting your bottom line.

Do you have any other tips or advice for eCommerce store owners who are hoping to convert more visitors into buyers? Be sure to share in the comments section below.

Kind sharing

Like this:

Or maybe you can’t nail down a promotional tactic that sets you apart from the competition.

Perhaps you’re still wrestling with the idea of paying dollars for social media advertisements.

These issues are completely normal for website owners who continuously aim to promote their video creations on a specific budget.

Since finding the most cost effective way to promote YouTube videos is your goal, you can exhaust your brain trying to find the perfect platform. As a result, instead of looking at all options, you take the old route of social media promotions.

That could be a mistake.

Why, you ask? Because social media has been the ‘poster child’ for video promotions for the past several years. Big websites have increasingly thrown lots and lots of money at it. While it may return fruitful results for multi-million dollar investments, businesses with small budgets may find most of their investment going down the drain.

Take this for instance: those interested in results often interpret the KPI as ‘you need to acquire 5000 Facebook shares within a month.’ How exactly is a website owner supposed to get 5000 shares with a few hundred dollars to spend?

On top of that, if you want a decent ROI, social media promotions may not be a good idea at all. According to Forrester Research, top brands’ Facebook and Twitter posts reach only 2 percent of their fans and followers, and less than 0.1 percent of their fans interact with each post on average. It would become less likely that unpaid posts would be actually seen by users.

As a result, unpaid posts are out, which puts anyone with limited budget relying on social networks to promote videos in a difficult position.

What are your options?

It’s time for you to start using promotional strategies that can deliver value. Basically, if you are looking for audience engagement you’re probably better off turning your attention away from social networks.

So where should you devote your investment and energy? It’s almost like choosing a new adventure. If you’ve got a quality video made, it’s in the best interest of your business – and your target audiences’ best interests – you can experience positive results with the following strategies:

1. Use the good old email

If managed effectively, email can be a powerful tool for promoting YouTube videos at a fraction of a cost compared to social media advertisements. Email marketing features like merge tag can be used to create video screenshots to embed in your email. Screenshots will be linked to the original video on YouTube.

TailoredMail is another option that can upload and embed videos in your email campaigns for sending. This service can also track viewing behavior, how many times the video was viewed, the length of the video viewed, the sharing behavior, and what device/platform was used to access the video.

When you manage to get your subscribers to become viewers, you can direct them to more video content they may like. Encourage sharing with social buttons, or place an Eloqua form at the end of the email for them to fill out.

Litmus is a great example of a company that embeds videos in its emails. Recipients just need to click to play the video, but it plays on an external page.

2. Leverage pop-ups

Want to promote videos directly through your website? Consider using pop-ups to showcase your video to your viewers. The most common pop-ups ask the reader to leave contact information, but they can be used to promote a video and encourage sharing, as well.

Pop-ups give you the ability to try out different modifications. By repositioning your pop-ups or testing different headers on the screen, you can analyze your results. This is called A/B testing, where you test design A, and compare it with design B, without changing other variables.

Website owners can use Wisepops’s Drag’n’drop editor to add videos, and users of this pop-up builder can also add a custom HTML linking to the YouTube video if needed. It’s possible to select where and when the pop-up should appear and target visitors by source, frequency, browser or device. This can be helpful if you want to promote a video to a specific audience.

3. Utilize your website/blog

More than likely you’re updating your blog on a regular basis to attract search engine traffic. Why not use it to promote videos as well? It’s easy to embed YouTube videos in most CMS. You can create a dedicated post for a video and accompany it by text description, or have a dedicated video section on your site. The following are some additional tips to follow while using this strategy:

If you create a blog post for the video, relate the headline to current or trending topics

Describe most of the video in the first few paragraphs

Have a call-to-action in the blog content asking viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel

Add the video to a playlist using relevant keywords before publishing a blog post

Publish a separate site URL if you want to create a dedicated video section

International Reviews is an example of a site that embeds its YouTube and Vimeo videos in its blog posts. Rather than using social media, they leverage their own blog for promotion, saving hundreds of dollars in the process.

4. Become a guest contributor

Guest contributions enable you to showcase your knowledge by providing great content to audience relevant to your niche. You can embed YouTube videos to support the contribution or mention your YouTube channel in the author bio.

To transition readers into viewers, write for sites, magazines and blogs that cover content similar to yours. After a contribution is up, commenting is another way to bring focus on your YouTube channel. You want to leave some great feedback and mention points about why readers should watch the video.

Another great option is to write for the local press. Contact the editor for a local newspaper with your proposed content. You may also be able to land an interview, which is a great opportunity to participate and get a mention for your YouTube channel.

5. Podcasts and internet forums

Doing a podcast is a unique way to bring attention to your YouTube videos. All you need is a mic, a computer, and an audio editing software. Any podcasts you create can be uploaded to YouTube as well, so you can have more content on your channel.

Another option is to join internet forums, most of which are free or have low membership fees. Then, contribute to topics relevant to your YouTube videos. For example, if your videos are related to fashion then you should participate in a fashion forum.

The tip here is to place the URL of your YouTube video/channel in the forum signature – a line of text that will appear under every post you create or respond to on a forum.

Final verdict

If you follow the above-mentioned ideas, then you will be able to see those view numbers rise. Of course, nothing is set in stone, but your budget will be in a much better position than it was.

Can you think of additional ways to promote YouTube videos without using social media? Feel free to leave comments.

Kind sharing

Like this:

That’s a rhetorical question. If you have an eBook, of course you want more people to consume its content.

Your first instinct is to probably spend dollars on social media to get people to notice your eBook. Those bestsellers you hear about have probably done the same.

At this point… I want to let you in on a little secret.

The authors of successful eBooks you see on the internet today began telling people about their eBooks long before they were released. They worked hard to get followers to know, like and trust them, and purchase the eBook if it had a price tag.

While they do use social media marketing for promotion, they initially resort to less expensive platforms. Every author can benefit from having a platform to promote their work. And for eBook publishers, it’s critical.

You might be surprised to know that one of the best platforms to promote your eBook is your own blog.

With the exception of your blog, most of the platforms won’t provide your eBook the long-term discoverability or online exposure you desire… and you’re likely to pay more for promotion. If your blog is already providing great benefits to your target audience – and if you promote your eBook alongside – this alone can provide a platform for success.

But here’s what no one else will tell you…

You need to get creative and thoughtful when it comes to promoting an eBook through a blog.

The point is to illustrate that not many people are going to come across your eBook if you’re just going to promote it via blog posts, which is what most people do.

See, it is not the armchair strategy that will get you sales and downloads; you need to take full advantage of your blog’s functionality to draw in visitors.

Here are 5 ways to go about it:

1. Use the sidebar

Your blog’s sidebar has some essential functions varying from tag listing to promotion. With an effective placement of your eBook in this space, you can benefit from more downloads and finally lift your monetization/promotion efforts off the ground.

But that’s easier said than done, because readers may ignore it for advertising; advertising is studiously avoided by the modern internet user. Here’s what you can do to make sure the eBook gets noticed while it’s placed in the sidebar:

• Create a big widget: A widget larger than the size of normal sidebar widgets can do more of a promotion, by letting people know there is something important on offer. You can use a tool like Firebug to add the appropriate styling to your blog’s HTML and CSS while seeing how your modifications are affecting other properties of the blog’s layout.
• Make the widget sticky: Your blog’s content will be longer than your sidebar, which means when the visitors are approaching the end of the content they’re reading, they’ve probably scrolled beyond the sidebar. Not a big deal for them, but it’s important to you, very important. To avoid that from happening, use plugins like Q2W3 Fixed Widget and configure from your dashboard. Such plugins will make your widget appear like a sharebar.
• Highlight the widget: So by now you’ve taken into consideration the recommendation of putting up a widget in the sidebar and promoting your eBook through it. Take it up a notch by making the widget more eye-catching. You can do this by changing borders, background color, or another element of your choice.

Here’s a layout example:

You can just use one sidebar instead of two, and create a bigger widget for promotion.

2. Use pop-ups

Pop-ups are attention grabbers, and they work better if you use them well. They can translate into leads and real-world dollars for your eBook. The modern pop-up is less of an ad and more of a feature integrated into a blog, so they can achieve a balance between conversions and offering a good visitor experience.

With WisePops, you can get creative while designing a pop-up for your site and customize the size, color, overlay and font before you publish it. Timing is going to be important as you don’t want to shock your visitors with a pop-up as soon as they arrive on your blog, but neither do you want the pop-up to appear after they’ve left. Here’s an example of a pop-up:

Define where and when you want the pop-up to appear and target visitors by frequency, source and browser. Check your Google Analytics to see the average time visitors spend on your blog and set the pop-up to appear 10-30 seconds after that time. Add some credibility to the pop-up by mentioning the number of people who’ve already downloaded the eBook, or if your eBook has a price, offer it for a discount.

3. Use the scrollbar

Scrolling enables progressive disclosure of your blog’s content. When visitors arrive at your blog, they are immediately looking for content and use the scrollbar to explore the entire blog page. You can leverage this opportunity and present them with further options in the sidebar, such as an opportunity to download your eBook.

Research shows that users scan content vertically, rather than horizontally, so following the buzz around horizontal scrollbars and breaking the eye pattern can be disruptive to your visitors’ natural behaviors. Give an option to download your eBook with the vertical scrollbar on your blog; a widget can catch people’s attention as they scroll, making them stop to look what you have to offer.

User Testing offers its eBook using this method. As users scroll to the end of the page, they are presented with a widget offering the eBook. Here’s how it appears:

4. Use notification bars

A quick notification at the top of the blog page can serve as a great call to action for your eBook. Many blogs use sticky notification bars to display the latest events, apps, announcements, and more, so that visitors don’t skip any important information. Most notification bars are light, so they do not increase the loading time of a website.

An example of a notification bar is the Foobar plugin. It allows you to add a customizable bar at the top of your blog, which can be used to promote your eBook. Different notifications and CTAs can be displayed on different pages or a default bar can be defined to display on all your pages. You can also rename the plugin’s name to something else, or completely remove the name.

Simonblog uses notification bars to promote its new offerings, such as handbooks and applications. Here’s how the notification bar appears:

5. Use the blog footer

The surprise of seeing something being offered right below the main content of a blog can tempt the readers to take action. The call to action for the eBook can be placed in the blog footer to capture the attention of visitors just as they are done reading. They have likely consumed a decent about of your content and are in ‘explore mode’, so they can download the eBook to figure you out.

Use good typography and vary the footer’s size, letter spacing and weight to improve the legibility of the eBook link in the footer. Give users on-click access to valuable information from your eBook rather than asking them to subscribe to your newsletter before they can download or buy the eBook. Don’t shy away from taking an illustrator’s help to add a creative element that enables a visitor to break away from the necessary utility of the rest of the page.

SocialMouths has a great footer design and it includes a CTA for the founder’s online course. You can do something like this for eBook promotion:

Have you used your blog for eBook promotion? Can you think of any additional ways to promote an eBook? Feel free to leave comments.

Kind sharing

Like this:

You know pop-ups help convert visitors into subscribers, but great writing in those pops-ups can take you from ho-hum conversion rates to stellar conversion rates in no time. Great copywriting in a small space can be a challenge, but with these 5 tips you can clean up your copy and get it working for you.

Tip 1: Benefits, benefits, benefits.

A pop-up is not the place to launch into details of your products features. You want to succinctly state why forking over their email address will benefit your reader. It’s not about your product and why it’s so great, it’s about your customer and how to make their lives or their business even better.

Let’s look at an example of good and bad copy in a newsletter sign-up:

This:

Free Marketing Guide!

Get 50 smart marketing tips when you sign up for our mailing list.

Not this:

Sign up for our mailing list, you’ll love it!

Tip 2: Less is more.

You’ve heard the old adage, but nothing could be truer for pop-ups. In just a few seconds, you want readers to glean enough information to feel right about signing up to hear more from you. If the pop-up is crowded with too many words, readers are going to look for the little ‘x’ is quickly as possible.

Here’s an example for a pop-up that welcomes traffic from a specific source:

This:

Special Welcome for Facebook Users: 20% off your first order. Use code FB20 at checkout.

Not this:

Thanks for visiting from Facebook! We appreciate our new customers and would like to offer you 20% off your first purchase. Please use coupon code FB20 at checkout.

Tip 3: Provide metrics.

How many subscribers is this reader joining? How much time can they save from the services you offer? Money? Including metrics makes your copy more concrete and compelling.

Let’s look at how this works in a promotion pop-up:

This:

Join 25,000 Entrepreneurs in learning this time-saving technique

30% our flagship productivity course

Join now.

Not this:

Sign up and save 30% on our productivity course.

Tip 4: Be direct, not cute or wishy-washy.

Don’t try to be cutesy, make referential jokes or play on cliches. Your customer doesn’t have time for that. Be direct. Don’t make your pop-up language into a riddle.

Let’s see how to welcome a repeat visitor, then how not to:

This:

Great to see you again! Take 15% your next purchase. Use code: repeat15

Not this:

Gee, thanks for stopping by again! We noticed you’ve been by here a few times and we want to thank you. Please take 15% off your next purchase of $25 or more. Our treat.

Tip 5: Leverage Power Words

Pop-ups are not the place for bland and banal language. It’s well acknowledged by great copywriters that certain words have more power and influence than others. Words like “Free, instant, guaranteed, proven, confidential” are action motivators. Use them.

Here’s an example of power words versus weak words for an exit pop-up:

This:

Free instant download to skyrocket your productivity. Sign up now!

Not this:

Sign up right away and download our ebook to increase productivity.

Now is the time to take a look at the existing copy in your pop-ups and see if you can apply these tips to make your pop-ups shine — and convert.

Kind sharing

Like this:

Looking for some new campaigns to increase conversions on your website? Here are a few proven ways to optimize your performances with targeted pop-ups:

Popup an immediate welcome message to new visitors. If you don’t already do this, it’s time to start. The pitch is simple: visitors come on your website every day, you want to have to make sure you capture as many emails as possible. Such campaign might increase your conversions by up to 400% so definitely worth a try.

Popup a last time offer to visitors about to leave your website (exit pop-up). Prompt an attractive message to visitors when they leave your website. Last chance to convert, it works well too and you have nothing to lose!

Popup your big events or hot topics to visitors who land on your product pages. Why? Because most of the traffic do not land on the homepage, so only a few share of your visitors can be aware of what’s important on your website right now. Displaying a pop up to all of those who do not land on your homepage is a great way to increase the visibility of your on going campaigns.

Popup newsletter sign-up invite to visitors coming from Google Adwords. Adwords visitors probably are those who cost you the most – by capturing their emails you will simply increase the ROI fo your campaigns.

Popup a super reward coupon to visitors who came on your website more than 4 times this month. You should reward your most loyal visitors, and not only focus on new ones. Rewarding repeated visits on your site is a great experience for your customers.

Kind sharing

Like this:

I have run a ecommerce website for 5 years, and worked with hundreds of web entrepreneurs and marketers. We all know how huge amount of time, work, and money is needed to get new visitors. However I am always surprised on how we naturally focus more on getting new visitors than on improving conversions. Visitors are so hard to get, we can not afford not to maximize chances to convert them. Popups offer an amazing way to feature one clear call to action to our visitors. If they take the action it, it’s a win. If they don’t, well, at least we have asked. And at the end of the day, you get lot of wins. How can we be so sure? We see this every day on thousands of websites. And since we also know why you may hesitate to use pop ups, and here is our view on the most common received ideas.

Received idea #1: If I display a popup my visitors will be disturbed and leave.

False. There is no correlation between the bounce rate and the use of a popup. This has been tested over and over, and you can test it too. What will happen if your visitors do not like the popup? They will do what we all do when we are not interested, they will close it. Not leave your website. And that’s probably what more than 90% of your visitors will do. Others won’t, and this is a huge opportunity you can not just waist.

Received idea #2: I have already optimized my landing page for conversions, no need to add a popup.

That’s great if 90% of your visitors land on your landing page. But unless if you are a one page start-up, it’s quite certain than more than 50% (80%?) land on your other pages (products pages, posts pages, etc.). You want to reach those visitors too, and popups give you this opportunity.

Received idea #3: If my visitors do not convert, it is because they are not interested.

Again, false. You do not have 99% visitors not interested and 1% who converts. You have 80% not interested, 20% interested, and 1% who convert. Improving conversions is only about learning on how to deal with those 20% of interested-hesitating visitors. And my two major learnings / pieces of advice are 1) if you want your visitors to do something, ask; and 2) make it easy for them to do it. I believe a popup is the best way to ask, and the easiest way for visitors to take action.